Music Lovers Unite: A Look At Upcoming Music Festivals

Imagine waking up in a tent with a couple of your best friends.  You have mud smeared across your cheeks, an absurd amount of dirt built up under your fingernails and a hangover that would force Dennis Rodman to swear off alcohol for the rest of his life.  In the background, you hear a band jamming and the general noise of thousands of people getting their day started.  You contemplate changing clothes and/or brushing your teeth and head to the nearest food tent to get a nutella and banana crepe, washing it down with your first brew of the day.  This was Day 2 of the Deputy's visit to Germany's annual festival called Hurricane in Scheissel, Germany.  Sounds fun right?

In the upcoming months, many festivals like Hurricane are popping up all over the globe and the Deputy is going to try to highlight some of the contenders for the Most Wanted List of Music Festivals this season.

On April 16th- April 18th, California hosts one of the most popular music festivals at the Empire Polo fields in Indio, California, near the Palm Springs area.  This festival boasts some of the biggest performers on their main stage but also provides different "tents" that play a wide array of different music and can provide some relief from the exhausting heat.  Some of the past headliners have included everyone from Bjork, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Prince, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and most shockingly the Rage Against the Machine Reunited performance.  This year the line up stars Jay-Z, Tiesto, Muse, Gorillaz, Them Crooked Vultures, MGMT, Yo La Tengo and De La Soul.

The line-up looks amazing but there are some skeptics as to this year's focus.  In the past, the headliners have been big names in the alternative, pop or electronic genres that are heavy hitters and cater to the hippie culture of these types of festivals.  With Jay-Z and a plethora of electronic/techno artists, it seems that this year is going to attract a whole new breed of audiences.  I am a huge fan of this year but some say that it isn't in the Coachella spirit.  Spirit or not, you can expect the Deputy all over the main stages and possibly passed out mid-day with a tattoo on my forehead that says, "TAKE ME HOME!"

This is a four-day, camping festival planted in the middle of Machester, Tennessee on a 700 acre farm.  The festival website discusses the variety of music genres they attract (from hip-hop to jazz to electronica) and even provides a "town" that surrounds the campsite that provides arcades, cinema, comedy clubs, jazz clubs and more to round out this amazing June festival experience.  Rolling Stone Magazine named this festival as one of the top 50 moments that changed the history of rock and roll.  

The Line up is to include Jay-Z (again), Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder, Weezer, Nora Jones, Thievery Corporation and even The Flaming Lips playing The Dark Side of the Moon.  This line-up, though noteworthy, is not even close to Coachella standards.  I don't think it can compare to the heavy-hitters and innovators that Coachella can attract, but it definitely provides more of an entertainment variety that makes for an unforgettable weekend.

A train takes you from Hamburg to a desolate station in Scheissel.  There is no station when the train stops so if you don't speak German, you have to blindly follow the masses of people in backpacks and tent bags to the camping site which is set up like a little neighborhood of music lovers and party-goers.  It is a twin music festival and shares a lot of the big line-ups with the Southside Music festival in the South of Germany.  

The line-up includes Coheed and Cambria, BeatSteaks (a German staple, really good band), Jack Johnson, La Roux, Stone Temple Pilots, The Get Up Kids and The Strokes.  Though the line-up is littered with German bands that you have never heard of, that adds to the fun and allure of this festival.  Everyone speaks English and meeting the locals is half the fun.  So if you find yourself in the area during June 12-14th, remember Hurricane.

(Critic's Choice)

This line-up is fun, this line-up is sick, I wanna take a ride on this line-up's disco's stick.  Not really but you get where I'm headed.  The name of this festival alone is enough to draw anyone to buy a ticket.  The festival started when Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction made the festival as a farewell performance for his band.  It fell off from being a touring festival and then was revived by the same originators in 2003 and has set its roots in Grant Park in Illinois.  

The line-up is too amazing to list every performer but just to wet your whistle:  Depeche Mode, Tool, Jane's Addiction, Kings of Leon, Snoop Dogg, Rise Against, Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys, Passion Pit, Atmosphere, and a whole lot more.  This would be the Deputy's choice for this summer's must-attend festival for August 7-9.  It resembles more of an older-Coachella line-up and may be the better choice if you do not have robot ears to enjoy Coachella's 2010 electro-heavy bands.

Check out the sites for tickets and suggestions for attendance.  See you there!